Redborough
by TsoLan
Summary: Whilst investigating a case of a dissapearing witch, Harry, newly appointed head of the Auror office, is led to a remote village in the north of England. Aided by Parvati, now an expert investigator in the wizarding world, it's not long before he senses that something is very wrong with the village.. Someone once said that muggles posed to danger to wizards. They were wrong.
1. Chapter 1

There was a knock at the office door.

"Yep, come in." Harry called. The door opened, but Harry didn't look up. He was too busy with his paperwork. "Thanks, Stebbins, just leave the report on my desk.

"Um...Excuse me." came a drawling voice. Harry looked up in alarm. A man with pale blond hair and a pointed nose stood above him. Harry's heart sank. Draco Malfoy. Although they had both, with great awkwardness, come to some common ground after the war, a visit from Malfoy was never exactly welcome.

"Oh...um...all right then..." Harry said, putting down his quill. "So... what can I do for you?"

"Well, I was wondering if we could talk. Something's come up, and my department has requested the help of the Auror office. Can you meet me in the restaurant at half one or something?" Malfoy spoke like a robot, and Harry could tell that he'd like to be doing just about anything else but asking for help from his school nemesis.

"Well...I suppose so." Harry muttered. "I'll see you then."

"Right." Malfoy said, closing the door behind him. Harry groaned. As if he wasn't busy enough already! In the five years since the war had ended, Harry had risen quickly through the ranks. Shacklebolt had obviously helped him along, but even so, Harry had been alarmed to find himself, at the age of twenty-two, in charge of perhaps the most revered department in the Ministry of Magic. Oh, there had been words said about it. Little more than a boy taking over the Auror office. Compared to the likes of Scrimgeour, and even those before him. Murgis, Varg, Clarke, Moody, Odgen. All of them past heads of the Auror office, all of them hanging from portraits on the wall around him. The Ministry thought it good for the head of the Auror office to be able to call of the advice of his predecessors, yet as Harry looked around at them- all of them rugged, scarred and experienced men. And all of them had been more than twice his own age when they had been appointed to this job. Harry often felt like an intruder, someone totally wrong for the job.

He snapped out of his trance. Cursing his wandering mind, he returned to his paperwork, only stopping when half past one came. Time to meet Malfoy.

"Ah, Potter. Thanks for coming." Malfoy said, with a forced smile.

"No worries." Harry said. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Oh, that's very kind. Um...Firewhisky, please."

Harry raised his eyebrows. Firewhisky in the middle of the afternoon? Oh well. He summoned the waitress and ordered a the drinks, a Butterbeer for himself.

"Right." Harry said, sipping his drink. "So what can I do for you?"

Malfoy didn't reply straight away, sipping his drink slowly. "You may have heard, I've got a job with the Magical Detection Office."

"Yes" replied Harry. "It's your work that often helps my department track down the scum we have to deal with. You investigate them, we catch them, all that sort of thing."

"Yep. Well, mainly we deal with total rubbish. You know, finding Animagi who have transformed into horses and then lost their wands. That kind of thing. But recently...well I've been assigned something that's "out there" so to speak."

Harry nodded. "Go on."

"Have you heard of the village of Redborough? Well, you wouldn't have, actually. It's isolated. I mean, proper isolated. It's up in Northumbria.

Harry chuckled. "Say no more." He had spent a whole month last year, trying to track down a convict over the and hills and plains of Northumbria. The place was huge. You could travel miles without finding a town.

"Well, yeah...now, there are no magical folk living in this village. We've checked. But just last month, Daisy McDonald flew over this village on her way to Scotland."

"Right..."

"Vanished. No trace."

Harry sat up, genuinely interested. "Could it have been an accident?" he asked. "People do fall of their brooms sometimes, Malfoy. It's tragic, but it's not really something for the Auror office to deal with."

"I'm aware of that." Malfoy replied, rather rudely. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a moving photograph. He dropped it into the table in front of Harry. "But this changes things, does it not?"

Harry glanced over the photo. It was of a short man with grey hair and a beard. "Oh, right, it's an album." he said, flicking his finger across the photo, making it slide left, making room for another one to take it's place. Another person, a young woman. And another. And another. They were black and white, dated 1992, 1994, 1975, 1966...and more.

"How far back does this go?" Harry asked.

"1897."

"What?"

"Yes, and can you guess now what all these people have in common?" Malfoy asked.

"Yes, they all vanished in that same area." Harry replied, smiling as Malfoy looked disappointed. "Well, it's always the way, isn't it?"

Malfoy smiled grimly. "So, we want your office to investigate it."

"Oh all right. Maybe I'll go myself, it will get me out of the office for a week or two."

"Yeah." Malfoy said. "It's mainly just a bunch of Muggles you'll need to contend with. It shouldn't be anything too nasty, but...well just in case...we thought it might be best if an Auror went."

"Ok." Harry said. "Ask your boss if he can lend me a member of your department, please Draco."

"Ok." Malfoy said, standing up. "Thanks for the drink. I'll get onto it."

As he was leaving, Harry called out to him. "Oi, Malfoy...I'm sorry to hear about your dad." Harry said, trying to sound as if he cared, as if was even remotely upset that Lucius Malfoy had recently died.

Malfoy turned around. "He never changed, you know. Right until his last breath, he hated muggle-borns, he hated anyone not like him."

"And have you changed" Harry asked.

Draco Malfoy shrugged. "I work with muggle-borns. Some of them are better at magic than me. I've been no better or worse off from being pure blood. So I guess that I have changed...yeah..." he turned and walked off without another word. Harry looked after him, smiling slightly.

Right...Harry said, kissing Ginny. "I'm off. See you soon."

"Bye." Ginny said, hugging Harry close. The pair of them stood outside their rented flat in Diagon alley. "You got all your stuff? Toothbrush? Muggle money? Real money?"

"You bet." Harry replied. "Just got to wait for my assistant from Malfoy's department. They said they would apparate here to meet me."

Five minutes passed.

Followed by ten.

"This is taking for ever!" Ginny said. "Where is this person?"

"Beats me." Harry said.

There was a loud crack, the sound of someone apparating. But nobody appeared on the street. "What the..." Harry muttered.

"Ah..." came a girl's voice from somewhere above them. "Anyone about?"

"Are you on our roof?" Ginny called out, incredulously.

"Well, I'm on _a_ roof, yeah. Sorry, I was a bit distracted when I apparated. Still, at least I ended up in the right dimension."

"Do I know you?" Harry called up to the person above. He recognized that voice. With another crack, whoever was on the roof apparated down onto the street beside Harry and Ginny.

"Yes, you do. Hey guys." Parvati said, smiling.

"Your coming with me?" Harry asked, looking at the Indian girl whom he once taken to a ball. But he thought the better of bringing that up again.

"Yeah, Draco mentioned you wanted someone to come with you. I said I would."

"Oh right" Harry said, grinning. Although he never had much to do with Parvati, he had liked her. "So you work with Malfoy, do you?"

"Work with him? I'm his boss, mate!"

"Ha!" Ginny laughed. "Excellent."

"Yeah, I'm the supervisor of the Magical Detection Office. Not the head of office. Not yet." she said, smiling slyly. "One day soon, perhaps."

Harry chuckled. "All right then...shall we go?"

"Northumbria, here we come." Parvati said gloomily. "I hear it's lovely this time of year." she added sarcastically. It was February.

Harry hugged Ginny one last time, telling her not to worry and that he'd be home soon. He went away for work often enough. Parvati waited patiently for them to finish, and with that, the two of them disapparated from Diagon Alley.


	2. Chapter 2

"This place is depressing." Parvati sighed, as Harry rang the reception bell. The pair of them stood in the Redborough hotel's dank, small and old fashioned lobby, waiting for assistance. They had apparated in the bleak, and grey town a quarter of an hour ago, and despite the muggle clothes they wore (a jacket, polo shirt and jeans for Harry, and a demin jacket and skinny jeans for Parvati) they had attracted many a curious look. Harry supposed that this wasn't a place where strangers appeared often.

Someone came out of a door behind the reception area. "Yes, yes, yes? What do you want?" he snapped. Harry and Parvati glanced at each other.

"Well, I was wondering if you had any rooms free..." Harry said.

The manager sighed and clicked a few keys on his computer. Parvati stared at the machine in fascination

"Right..." he said.

"Well, we need two room-"

"Yes, one moment, please!" The manager said rudely. Parvati turned on the spot and covered her mouth with her hand, trying to suppress a giggle. Harry couldn't say he found being spoken to in this manner amusing.

"Yes, go on then." The manager barked.

"Yeah, so, two roo-"

"No, no, no, your name please! Tell me your name."

"Harry Potter." Harry said.

As Parvati came back to face the reception, having composed herself, her wand slid clean out of her pocket, and landed on the floor. The manager saw this and stared at Parvati and Harry curiously.

"You all right?" Harry asked, as Parvati picked up her wand and stashed it back in her pocket

"Hmm..." the manager mumbled, distracted. "Oh yes...so..." suddenly he put on a huge grin. "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting, my friends. Now, is there anything, anything at all that I can do for you?" he asked, in a simpering voice.

"Um...no, just two rooms, please..." Harry replied.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, but we only have one left...a double."

"Oh, well, we're not..." Harry gestured between himself and Parvati "we're not together."

"No, we're just...together but...not in that way." Parvati added. "But give us the double anyway."

Harry felt awkward, and glanced at Parvati. " Oh grow up, Harry, we have to sleep somewhere tonight!" she laughed.

"Yeah, fair enough. Parvati, sign for the rooms will you, I'll take the case up."

"Room two, sir." the manager said. He handed Parvati a form and a pen. "Just your signature, madam."

Parvati held the pen curiously, and stared at the manager as though he was mad. "You haven't given me any ink..." she said.

"I beg your pardon?" the manager said.

"Ink...I can't write anything otherwise."

"The ink is inside the pen, madam..." the manager replied, puzzled.

"Well, how do I get it out, then?" Parvati asked, turning the pen around in her hands. And what kind of bird did this come from, anyway?"

"No, no my dear. Look." the manager showed Parvati the nib. "The ink will come out of here when you start writing."

"Ah! That's clever! That's really clever. And they say that you lot are thick!" Parvati scrawled her initials on the form and went upstairs to join Harry.

/

"What is it?" she asked as Harry stood waiting outside the door to room two.

"Have a look." he said, pushing the door open. A dingy, dark and smelly room lay beyond, with peeling wallpaper and stained windows. In the middle, a sagging double bed sat.

"Blimey..." Parvati said. "Not great, is it?"

"I mean, do we really have to share a bed? If Ginny knew..." Harry protested.

"Look, we're both small! You stick to your end, I'll stick to mine. And never the two shall meet." Parvati said, walking into the room.

"We're both small. Thanks." Harry muttered bitterly, well aware of his short stature and slim build.

Parvati opened the suitcase. And pulled her suitcase out of it. "Here catch" she said, throwing Harry his backpack full of basic clothes and items.

"Right, so here's the plan." Harry said. "We get a few hours sleep. Then tomorrow, we start searching for Daisy MacDonald. All right?"

"Sure, sure." Parvati said, looking out of the window. "I think we should stick together, though."

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked, curiously.

"Just a feeling." Parvati replied. There was something odd about that manager. He was so rude at first, but then he just suddenly changed."

"Yeah. The prat." Harry scoffed.

That evening, Harry and Parvati lay in the double bed together. They had thought the better of eating at the hotel, and had instead visited a delightful little pub. Harry lay awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable about sharing a bed with another woman. Parvati seemed totally at ease, and, Harry thought resentfully, somewhat amused at his discomfort.

"You know, I was thinking of making Malfoy go." Parvati said. "I can just picture the two of you in here together."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, that would have been a lot more awkward than this."

Parvati laughed. "Yeah...I kind of wanted to come, though. I always kind of liked you at school. Well, apart from at the Yule Ball of course."

Harry groaned. "Yes...I never really apologized about that, did I...sorry..."

"Aww, don't worry. The boy I went off with was far better looking than you. No offence."

"Well, some taken, to be honest..." Harry said.

Parvati shrugged. "Well, he was. Not that you aren't good looking in your own way. At least it was Padma with Ron and not me."

Harry laughed out loud. "Yeah, he was in a worse mood than me that night."

There was the sound of a fist against the wall. "Shut! Up!" came a voice. Harry and Parvati stared at each other. "We should probably go to sleep..." they agreed, at the same time.

Harry awoke with a jolt. Parvati was sleeping soundly beside him. He glanced around the dark room. What had woken him so suddenly? He glanced around, nervously. The door was locked, and everything seemed as it should be. He looked out of the window. There had been someone there...he could sense it. Something had shifted in the corner of his eye, just before he looked. He heard scratching...scraping from outside. The sound of a ladder being taken down.

Harry scrambled out of bed and went to the window. He looked down. A man he didn't recognize was walking away with the ladder. He was walking into the woods. Before he reached the first trees, he turned around, perhaps sensing Harry's eyes on him. He turned around and nodded at Harry, clearly trying to act as though he was just a normal man in the street. With a ladder. At three in the morning. But did he knew what Harry knew? What Harry was sure about, with no actual proof? That the man darting into the woods had in fact been staring through the window at him and Parvati moments before...

He went back to bed, and before long drifted back into an uneasy sleep.

**Note: Hi, I hope some people are enjoying this story. I kind of like writing stories about random characters interacting which is why I've chosen Harry and Parvati. Reviews are welcome. :~D**


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